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Beta'd by melanieintn

E POV

I had thought that once our trouble with the Quileutes were over that we'd be able to sit back and relax for a while, but that was not meant to be. We had all gone back to the house to sit and discuss our next move; the phone rang, and disaster had struck again. This time it was in the south. The southern covens had decided to revolt and start a war. Our family was needed to join with all those that were in Volterra and take care of them. We had to make decisions fast, and that was what we did. We talked it over and decided to go and join in the fight. We couldn't afford to let the southern covens get control of anything. Once again we packed up and set off for the south. Bella and I decided to leave all our young ones in Charlie and Cora's care for the time being.

Once we met up with Eleazar and his group, we rushed to the southernmost part of Mexico where Maria had her army holed up. Once she knew we were there, the events happened quickly. I don't have time to go into every detail, but I was very proud to say that Alice was able to exact a little piece of revenge for herself and Jasper. It goes without saying that there were no losses on our side, but there were plenty on the other side. Bella and her gift alone wiped out a huge number of them. The southern covens would cease to exist, since they were completely decimated. After we had taken care of that problem and things seemed calm again, we went back to Forks. My daughters weren't far from graduating high school. Once they did graduate; they followed in mine and Bella's footsteps and got married to their chosen mates. They decided to move to Italy for a while. While they were there, Alyssa finalized her plans to be changed. Bella and I went and stayed with them for the first six months of her newborn year; she did great getting control of her bloodlust. She didn't have any special powers or gifts, but she was happy and content with just knowing that she and Dem would always be together. Once the newlywed couples were settled into life at the castle, Dem was made head of the guard. Colin was made second-in-command. Even though he had no definitive gift, he did have a brilliant strategic mind. After awhile, Augustus got restless and also moved to Volterra. Once he was settled there, he began working on more projects and introduced some of his earlier works to others of our kind. The makeup and aging tools were a very big hit with those of our kind who wanted to live amongst humans. When the main core part of our family decided to return once again to Forks for a short time, he was working on a way for vampire women to be able to have children. I didn't know how that was going to work, but I wished him well. Rosalie and Esme were very hopeful he would be successful.

Now that it was just the eight of us again, we decided to pack up and move again. We decided to move to Dallas Texas; it seemed we had come full circle. All of us "kids" were going back to high school; at least we had never been to this school before.

Charlie and Cora were disappointed we weren't going to stay in Forks for a while longer, but understood our need to start over; and Washington State wasn't the place to do this. The treaty with the wolves was still intact, but we would never be friends with the wolves. There was just so much bad history for that to ever happen. They did understand we had never meant anyone any harm, and they promised to include that in their stories and legends; so hopefully when we return to the area one day, the Quileutes won't be afraid of us.

Esme had found us a huge incredible house with lots of property to roam on. We wouldn't have to worry about nosy neighbors while living here, and that made me happy. Carlisle had decided to go back into medicine; and, of course, we were going to start the tenth grade at the beginning of the school year in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we were setting up our side project that Esme was mostly in charge of.

Carlisle was going to open up a free clinic for battered women and children. This was a cause near and dear to Esme's heart, considering her background; so she was going to act as a counselor and in any other way they needed help, such as finding jobs, affordable housing, legal assistance, and any other necessities. This basically meant she would be buying and fixing up properties and renting them out to these women. We would help out after school of course; it was going to be difficult work, but worth it.

BPOV

Well, today is the first day of my second time going through high school. I was actually looking forward to it. Edward thought I was crazy, but to be honest my first time through was marred with unhappy memories; getting attacked by James, Edward leaving, then, of course, getting stalked by Jacob. Of course, there were happy times too; some that I wasn't even aware of until much later, such as moving in with my dad. That little decision led me to where I was now, so I wouldn't change any of it.

"Bella, love, we need to leave in ten minutes; are you ready?" Edward asked, as he entered our bedroom.

"Yes, I'm ready. How do I look? Can I pass for a tenth grader?" I asked him.

"You look beautiful, my love. I am going to have to get used to how teenage boys think of you again. That will be difficult," he said, smiling softly at me.

"And I am afraid none of us really pass for typical high school students much less tenth graders, but most people don't pay enough attention to that for it to be a problem," he said with a smirk, referring to the fact that I did pay close attention to them.

"Yes, well hopefully you won't have any crazy humans following after you, trying to figure out what you are this time," I said, grinning up at him.

"And if we do, you can just make them forget what they were curious about. See! I knew there was a good reason why I changed you," he said, grinning cheekily down at me.

I growled playfully at him and tackled him on our bed.

"Edward, Isabella Cullen! Don't you dare even think about it! I picked out the perfect first day of school outfits, and I don't want them ruined," Alice yelled at us from downstairs. We both groaned, as we got off the bed and made our way downstairs.

"Sorry, Alice," we both said sheepishly, as she eyed our clothes to make sure nothing was out of place.

"You two can't seem to help yourselves. Come on; it's time to go," she said, obviously finding nothing out of place on our clothes.

"Well, you three, how is our first day of high school in twenty years going to be?" Emmett asked, as we headed to our Escalade. We decided to all ride to school together this time around.

"Pretty much a typical Cullen first day of school, Em," Alice giggled and everyone else chuckled.

I wasn't in Forks on their first day of school, which happened to be their last first day of school. If their first days of school were anything like the day I saw them, I couldn't believe they would go back the next day.

"All right, bring it on then!" Em shouted, as we headed down the driveway.

We pulled up to the school twenty minutes later. We were attending Woodrow Wilson High school, it was a smaller school with a little over fourteen hundred students. Well, it was small compared to my high school in Phoenix, but huge compared to Forks. I was hoping that once the students were used to us we would blend in a little more than at a smaller school, but I knew that was wishful thinking. Six vampires would never blend in anywhere no matter how large the school.

The whispers had already started when we pulled into the school. Unlike at Forks there were quite a few nice vehicles in the student parking lot, but our huge SUV still stood out. The six of us stepped out of the vehicle causing several small gasps to come out of gaping mouths, and everyone was staring at us.

Would you check them out!

Wow! The blonde chick is mine!

I want that brunette!

The bronze haired god is going to be mine by the end of the day!

Now, that got my attention! I growled low in my chest, and looked over to see a skanky looking blonde with a bad spray-on tan staring hungrily at my husband.

"Just ignore her, love. She and everyone else in school will know I am yours before the end of the day. I assure you," Edward said sweetly.

"Oh baby, they will know before then," I growled out and stood on my tiptoes.

I brought Edward's lips to mine in a fierce kiss, which he returned readily. I heard several more gasps at our blatant PDA, but I couldn't have cared less. I knew it was childish, but my natural protective vampire instinct demanded that I stake my claim. As we kissed, I noticed Edward seemed to be doing the same.

"Hmph! I don't care if he seems to have a girlfriend. It may take me longer than I want, but he will be mine," bad spray tan girl was thinking. As Edward and I pulled away from each other, I peeked over at her and saw that she was scowling. I turned back to Edward to find him just staring at me with lust filled eyes.

"Way to stake your claim, baby sister. You make me proud," Emmett laughed, as we all walked up to the door of the school together. We had to walk by bad spray tan girl, and I watched her straightening out her clothes and sticking out her chest, trying to look sexy.

"Hi, my name is Amber," she said, as we walked by her without stopping or even looking at her.

Hmph, this will be harder than I thought.

I just laughed at her thoughts; the poor thing had no clue she had no chance. Well, she would find out soon enough.

Not everyone was like Amber; thank goodness. I met a very sweet girl that reminded me of Angela Weber in my English class; her name was Chloe, and I could tell she would be a friend. Poor Emmett almost had to leave class to keep from tearing into the gym coach when he tried flirting with Rose. She set him straight quickly while giving him one of her famous bitch glares; they won't have to worry about him anymore, not without him losing his job anyway.

Edward had Algebra with Amber; she tried to sit by him and talk to him. But after five minutes of him completely ignoring her and getting laughed at by some of the other students, she gave up. Poor Edward, he hated to be rude; but some people you just had to be rude to, to get your point across.

Alice pretty much had to stake her claim on Jasper after a girl in Chemistry decided she was going to follow us home so she could find out where he lived and spy on him.

"I am so glad to get out of there for a while. We have never had a first day like that. Humans are usually much more wary of us after they get close to us and get over the first shock of our looks. Having this make-up and the fact we have lived more closely with human for the past twenty years has made us more accessible. Ren and Lyssie have really softened us," Edward said on our way to the shelter that afternoon.

"Well, one thing is for sure; I don't think we are in for any more humdrum high school experiences," Jasper said, as we headed inside to tell Carlisle and Esme about our exciting first day.

E POV

So, there it was…..the first day of high school twenty years later. I found out rather quickly that though we had been away from it not much had changed in the way we were to be perceived. We were eternally young, rich, and good looking, and that would always garner certain reactions in people. It was something that we, as Cullens, would always have to put up with; but as long as we had our family, we would be okay.

C POV

Well friends, here we are at the end of the story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed telling it. I ask that you please join us for our next adventure, whatever it may be.